HarmonyOS Intelligence Mobility has entered a period of intensive new product launches. Is the biggest competitor within the company?
On August 25th, Hongmeng Zhixing launched multiple new car models at the Autumn New Product Launch Conference of Zhijie and Wenjie held in Chengdu. In terms of the Zhijie brand, the Zhijie R7 and S7 received facelifts. The price ranges are from 249,800 to 309,800 yuan and from 229,800 to 289,800 yuan respectively, both of which are 20,000 yuan lower than the pre - sale prices.
It is reported that the new Zhijie R7 and the new S7 have been upgraded mainly in terms of internal and external details, assisted driving, and other configurations. They are also equipped with the new Zhijie brand logo, and all models are equipped with the HUAWEI ADS 4 assisted driving system. Among them, the new Zhijie R7 is available in both pure - electric and range - extended power forms, while the new S7 is only available in the pure - electric version. "The new cars are full of sincerity, and they made Mr. Yin (Yin Tongyue, Chairman of Chery) spare no expense," said Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei and Chairman of the Terminal BG, twice on the spot.
Photo source: Photo taken by Sun Lei, reporter of National Business Daily
In terms of the Wenjie brand, the pure - electric version of the Wenjie M8 was launched. The entry - level model was changed to the Max+ version, and two seat layouts of five - and six - seat were introduced. The price range is from 359,800 to 449,800 yuan. The new Wenjie M5 Ultra version was released in a new color, Leaping Shadow Red, and the price of this model is 229,800 yuan.
In addition, Yu Chengdong announced that the Xiangjie S9T will be launched on September 16th. The first product of the fifth "Jie" of Hongmeng Zhixing, the Shangjie H5, also started pre - orders at this press conference. The pre - sale price starts from 169,800 yuan, and it will be officially launched on September 23rd.
New cars of Hongmeng Zhixing are being launched one after another
The development of the Zhijie brand has been full of twists and turns. The first model, the S7, faced delivery difficulties due to the booming orders, and the R7 quickly declined after a brief surge. Huawei and Chery even once got into a "tug - of - war" due to differences in leadership, adding more ups and downs to the development path of Zhijie.
On August 7th, Chery and Huawei signed a strategic cooperation agreement 2.0 for the Zhijie brand, announcing that the brand's development has entered the 2.0 stage. Huawei and Chery clearly stated that they will invest over 10 billion yuan and a R & D team of 5,000 people in Zhijie, and at the same time adjust the operation structure to achieve independent operation integrating production, sales, and service. Yin Tongyue, Chairman of Chery, said that "all of Chery's resources will be tilted towards Zhijie", and Yu Chengdong believes that the Zhijie brand has entered the fast lane of development. The newly launched Zhijie R7 and the new S7 are the "first battle" for the Zhijie brand to enter the 2.0 mode.
The industry believes that Zhijie's renewal of all its on - sale models is not only a key move at the strategic level but also an urgent "self - rescue" in terms of actual sales. However, it is not easy for these two new cars to achieve a significant increase in sales. The Zhijie S7 will directly compete with popular models such as the Tesla Model 3 and the Xiaomi SU7, as well as the new XPeng P7, which aims to occupy the top three positions in the segmented market. The new Zhijie R7 will compete with the Tesla Model Y and other models.
Photo source: Photo taken by Sun Lei, reporter of National Business Daily
In addition, the pure - electric version of the Wenjie M8 was also launched at this new product launch conference, with the starting price the same as that of the range - extended version. It is reported that all new cars are standard - equipped with a 100 - kWh battery from CATL, and the maximum CLTC comprehensive cruising range is 705 km. Thanks to the removal of the range extender, the pure - electric version of the Wenjie M8 has a 149 - liter intelligent electric front trunk.
However, the situation of the pure - electric version of the Wenjie M8 is also not easy. On the one hand, the segmented market for high - end pure - electric SUVs has been lukewarm in the past two years, and the market share is not large. On the other hand, models such as the Li Auto i8, the Tesla Model Y L, and the NIO ES8 have been launched one after another, all aiming to take a share of this already small "cake", which also poses greater challenges to the pure - electric version of the Wenjie M8.
In addition to the launch of multiple new cars, the new member of Hongmeng Zhixing, the Shangjie H5, also started pre - orders. It is available in both pure - electric and range - extended power forms and is equipped with the HUAWEI ADS 4 assisted driving system upon launch. "The costs of our high - level assisted driving, intelligent cockpit, and intelligent vehicle control are all very high. In the past, it was a huge challenge to keep these costs below 200,000 yuan. I also really appreciate the team from SAIC," said Yu Chengdong.
It is reported that this is the press conference at which Hongmeng Zhixing has launched the most new products. Some views suggest that the current competitive landscape of the intelligent electric vehicle industry is significantly similar to the rise path of the smartphone industry back then. Enterprises generally accelerate product iteration and technological innovation, continuously launch new products to stimulate market demand and promote consumption growth. Hongmeng Zhixing also hopes to attract more consumers in this way.
Orient Securities believes that "multiple high - profile new cars of Hongmeng Zhixing will be launched in the second half of the year. We expect that the models of Hongmeng Zhixing will be less affected by the 'anti - involution', and the sales growth rate of the relevant vehicle - making enterprises of Hongmeng Zhixing in the second half of the year will be better than the industry average."
"Short - term internal competition is inevitable"
It is worth mentioning that, different from other brands, when creating products, Hongmeng Zhixing not only needs to consider the competition with models of other brands but also the coordination and balance among its own "Jie" brands. For example, the newly launched Zhijie R7 and the upcoming new Wenjie M7 to be launched next month, although they are respectively positioned towards sports and family use, do not have significant differences in core configurations, and there is a high probability of price overlap.
A person familiar with Huawei told a reporter from National Business Daily that the products under Hongmeng Zhixing have two core advantages: Huawei's control over product quality and the support of the HUAWEI ADS assisted driving system. From the current and upcoming products of Hongmeng Zhixing, these two core advantages are fully reflected in the vehicles, which also leads to many similarities among the products.
Photo source: Photo taken by Sun Lei, reporter of National Business Daily
"We believe that short - term competition and 'horse - racing' within the Huawei - selected OEMs are inevitable. Product overlap will lead to the diversion of orders and sales when the channel and R & D resources are limited. For the Huawei - selected OEMs, we believe that in addition to sales, more attention should be paid to the changes in the system construction and governance capabilities of the OEMs empowered by Huawei," a research report previously released by CITIC Securities stated.
Judging from the current development situation of Hongmeng Zhixing, Wenjie is undoubtedly the most prominent among them, and it also has the strongest system construction and governance capabilities among the OEMs empowered by Huawei. Against this background, while maintaining the good momentum of Wenjie, how to speed up the capabilities of other "Jie" brands is also a problem currently faced by Hongmeng Zhixing.
Facing such problems, Huawei has transferred the successful experience and core talents verified in the Wenjie project as strategic resources to other brands within Hongmeng Zhixing. Public information shows that Huawei is systematically transferring backbone forces from Wenjie to support the development of new brands such as Zhijie and Xiangjie.
For example, Peng Lei, the former product director of the Wenjie project of Hongmeng Zhixing, has been transferred to Xiangjie as the product director. Currently, some engineers, the marketing team, and the procurement team of Zhijie come from the successful Wenjie project. "Mr. Yu (Yu Chengdong) personally selected dozens of experts (in styling design, supply - chain management, quality control, etc.) who have created popular products from Huawei to strengthen the Zhijie team," Peng Lei, the product director of Zhijie with the social - media ID "Zhijie Hailantian", publicly stated.
In addition, the Zhijie, Shangjie, and Xiangjie brands are also learning from the Wenjie model in terms of channels. The reporter learned that on August 24th, the National Investment Promotion Conference for Zhijie User Centers was held in Chengdu, attracting hundreds of high - quality dealers to actively participate. The Zhijie brand is accelerating the construction of independent channels.
However, some views believe that whether the success of Wenjie can be replicated to other "Jie" brands still needs time to verify. "All five 'Jie' brands of Hongmeng Zhixing can rise and form a scale, but it takes time. It takes a process to build the brand - market fit and create multiple product models. It's the same as the difficult process we went through with Wenjie," said Yu Chengdong.
This article is from the WeChat official account "NBD Auto". Author: Sun Lei. Republished by 36Kr with permission.